Cross server queues would, as previous posters have said, just change the scale of the problem it wouldn't reduce the problem. It would add some new problems though. For example,loss of community. At present there is at least a chance you'll see people regularly and get to know them. Certainly in the past my guild has found new members this way, by people who constantly met us on pugs applying to join. Cross server pugs would be much more business and very little community or chat. I know PUGs aren't hang out spots at the moment, but you can meet some nice people. There's also the anonymity problem. There are fewer downsides to behaving badly in a pug if you're never likely to see a player again, if they can't easily contact your guild to complain etc. While this may not a problem for a lot of puggers who are polite on principle there will be a distinct set of people who see their anonymity as an invitation.

Happy New Year all!

THUNDER[/URL] runs on that kind of schedule. We are Empire side, raiding Tues, Thurs, Sun, Mon from 21:00GMT - 00:00GMT (22:00-0100 CET). Our guild comprises people in their 20s, 30s and older who need to raid later because of work, family etc. We welcome both raiding and non-raiding (social) members which gives us a nice atmosphere. Check out the site if you'd like more info or contact one of us in game.

Terror From Beyond Story cleared! yay!

Summary THUNDER raids 3-4 days a week 9pm-12am UK time and is a guild primarily for older members. We also welcome social members, future raiders, friends and family of all levels. Free to play players are also very welcome. Visit http://www.thunder-guild.net for further details or read on. THUNDER is a mature social and raiding guild which has been established for many years in MMOs such as World of Warcraft and RIFT. This gives our SW:TOR members the benefit of a broad community for all types of players from all over the world and a very experienced leadership. Our members are generally players who are a little older than the average and have to fit playing SW:TOR around jobs, families and commitments. As we recognise that life has to come first, we welcome both raiders and social players regardless of the amount of time they can commit, their experience playing MMOs and their level. The atmosphere in THUNDER is chatty, helpful and friendly. We make a lot of use of mumble, both in raids and just to talk in between times. In order to fit with our players other responsibilities all of THUNDER's playtimes are later in the evening with raids taking place from 9PM UK time until 12AM UK time on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. We carry our flexibility into raiding, raiders can raid as much or as little as they like. However, despite the casual schedule our members do try to take raiding semi-seriously, the best way to describe it is to say that it is “casual but focused”. This approach has certainly proved fruitful and we have completed the Eternity Vault Nightmare Mode, Karagga's Palace Nightmare Mode, Explosive Conflict Story Mode, Terror from Beyond Story Mode and two out of the four bosses in Explosive Conflict Hard Mode. THUNDER are currently open to all applications for both raiders and social members of all classes, specs and playstyles whether subscribed or free-to-play. We would be interested to hear from players who would like joining our successful raiding team. In particular we'd like to hear from tanks, healers and ranged DPS. Free to play players are very welcome to apply, whether they're new or old returning players. If you would like to know more please visit our website at http://www.thunder-guild.net or whisper some of our members on The Red Eclipse server any of whom will be happy to answer your questions. To name but a few Sharia, Loreki, Deimos, Hippyefc, Crushor and Terrorstorm.

My guild and I have had a mixed experience with the bonus chests in Explosive Conflict. How are they supposed to work? Are they on a timer? Are they only available on your first Explosive Conflict run of the week?

Hi, I have a question and I was wondering id anyone could help. I noted in the article that the designed transfer places may change at short notice as server populations shift. If a whole guild sought to move as a unit, will we be able to let customer service know that we're moving as a grou[ so that they can keep the door open until everyone lands at the new server?

Normally for a full expansion with several new raids, small-group dungeons and worlds. Not for a content patch with only 1 new dungeon and 1 new raid. If they get this wrong this will undoubtedly ruin their game. Having a new level cap will render the 100s of hours of existing level 50 content too easy, too boring and all-together useless. There are further considerations: will crafters get new recipes for the new end-game level cap? how will the PVP brackets work? Will there be a new extra hard setting for 10 or so current FPs so that people at the new level cap can still play them? It seems to me that this is the wrong call; SW:TOR and all new MMOs often struggle with having enough end game content when they are first released. This will be catastrophic if you just bin all of the existing content by raiding the level cap.

Currently the main advantage of the armour crafting skills is slotted gear and augments. However, these are bind on equip/tradeable. Are there any plans to introduce new bind-on-pickup bonuses for armour crafters to make it worthwhile being an armour crafter on your main raider? For example, an additional non-tradeable tier of augments that give a few more stats each.

The guild bank system is a big step in the right direction. However, many of it's features like the money ledger, are exclusively accessible by the Guild Master (GM). This prevents GMs from delegating the bank management to officers, such as a designated 'Bank Officer', which is the preferred approach of many guilds. Was this a conscious design choice, if not, do you have plans to revisit the accessibility settings of the Guild Bank system?

I am generally very happy with the UI of the game. I have just a few little complaints. The whisper system reply button still misdirects whispers. Even if you're mid-way through typing to one person, and another whispers you, the reply system sends it to the last person to whisper you. This is frustrating. There is no option to key-bind raid icons, to speed up marking and/or allow marking on the move as a fight changes. I'd like to see an option to keybind these.

I'd like to see some operations or flashpoints taking place on the opposing homeworld, perhaps as covert missions which represent an escalation in the cold war. That could certainly be fun for those of how who haven't played both factions/haven't seen the enemy worlds. Kashyyk might be fun too if you want a brand new world.

Some observations of Gifts for Empire Protocol Droid 2V which now have an affect following 1.2. Test was conducted on a Sith Inquisitor Figures apply to a droid at 0 affection and refer to grade 5 rare gifts. Your numbers may vary but the ranking of effectiveness shouldn't. Techology - +135 aff Cultural Arts - +240 aff Imp Mem - +60 aff Luxury - +60 aff Rest - +/-0 aff So from this we can determine that the ranking for gifts for empire protocol droids is: Cultural artifacts > Technology > Imperial Memorabilia = Luxury

With server transfers a top priority, are there any plans to reinstate more general cross-server guild recruitment forums to make finding a new guild to move to easier?

This is a rather longer term suggestion and focuses on how server transfers will function within the community. I have the excellent fortune to be from THUNDER, a late night raiding guild, which is a pretty niche type of guild. We have been lucky to attract quite a number of server transfer applications in other games. Our experience has taught us that people do not research a server and select a server then search for guilds. They search for suitable guilds and then consider whether or not the server more broadly is one they can move to. This is the exact opposite of how the current guild recruitment forums work on SWTOR.com. The structure currently is to find your server and look within that server. This is fine where there are no server transfers available and people only have the option of looking within their server. However in order to research a potential server transfer I feel players will need to be able to look for guilds more broadly to look for the type they want, not the place they want. A successful server transfer system is not just about making sure everything gets to your new home with you but also about providing the community with the tools to make proper use of transfers. Will the team consider reinstalling a more general guild recruitment forum similar to the one SWTOR.com had prior to launch? Or perhaps even implementing a "server transfer recruitment forum" specifically for those guilds who are open to transfers?

It certainly could be something to grow on for future areas. I agree with livnthedream implementing this feature in all current areas would require too much tinkering. However, if future areas pursue similar stories and location to Eternity Vault, the ancient, hidden places of the galaxy, they could create a new class of enemy specific to those areas which is archeology-usable.

It strikes me that the option of full 3D space battles (by which I assume you mean beyond the current 'rail-based' system) may also feature capital ship combat. It may be a difficult balancing exercise to marry small ship combat with the presence of large ships, but it strikes me that "full 3D space battles" in the Star Wars style would feature both. Indeed, one of the most iconic Star Wars moment is the Battle of Yavin which is a mixed battle of large and small craft. It would not be impossible to include for example, the guild capital ships, as a feature of any space battles. Presumably the trick would be to make guild capital ships similar to capital ships in the existing game, virtually immobile with targettable turrents.

I enjoyed it, I really did. I think you've chosen great hosts who command a lot of respect in the community and ask the right questions. One perhaps pessimistic concern: Will the creation of an official podcast make the team less willing to make appearances/give interviews on other podcasts which the community enjoys? I think it would do the community, discussion and crucially the feedback (which it is clear you value) a disservice for the other podcasts to become somewhat secondary sources in comparison to a single official source.

That's not exactly a great idea. Certainly some reflection of that might be good. However, there are a few points in the story at which your character has the option to be rude to people regardless of who they are. It stands to reason that other characters in the world (NPCs) may similarly choose not to care who you are on occasion. It would be both extremely annoying and somewhat unrealistic for people to defer to you too much.

It's not a matter of being sexist or opposed to genders being called what they're comfortable with. In the real world I would be with you. However, losing yourself for a moment in the fantasy world of SWTOR and looking at it from inside of that world their (admittedly fictious) history is just a little different such that your character herself may not feel how you do about the issue. Remember for many players, they are playing the character, not themselves and would rather features reflect the world in which the game is set, rather than try to fit into the standards of the real world. For example, one does not generally complain that slaves in SWTOR ought to be free because slavery is a part of the fantasy world in which the game is set.

Some of the books, certainly the tie-ins for SWTOR, make the point that Lord is the correct title for both genders of Sith. The word, it is seems never had the association with gender it does for us. I think the idea being that to use the term Lady is to suggest that a sith-lord is somehow different or lesser by virtue of gender; a profound mistake indeed. So it's not universally the opinion of "the lore" that both are used. Certainly in Revan (the book) the master of the main character is female and uses Lord To address the general grammar of the titles in English; here's an interesting rule. The plural for a mixed group is always 'my lords'. You'll note this from watching the House of Lords or any court in the UK.

This functionality is coming in 1.2 - its hidden in the back of the Patch Notes for 1.2 near the end under "Groups and Targetting" on the second page. See here.

They add a more effective way to grind affection. I approve of that, but did find the sex scenes rather pointless. I would similarly find actual sex scenes just as pointless if not more so.

http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-march-16th-2012 I asked for and thankfully got an assurance to the contrary. I'm much better at this planning ahead stuff than you think. About speculating on speeders: Remember that in addition to the vendor speeders which are being discontinued the craftable speeders are becoming BOE. A market in them will probably spring up in 1.2. A little investment advice though, don't make a bunch of speeders in advance just incase that doesn't pan out. Better to stock the materials. At very least if the speeder market isn't as lucrative as estimated, you can use the materials for something else or sell them. I get that a lot of people don't plan as such and just like to play. Still there must be things that you had wanted to achieve in the game that have been altered by the upcoming patch. Even if that's just to achieve something before they make some elements easier in the patch. So far as relaxing goes, I enjoy speculating on these things and trying to stay one step ahead!

The cross faction market is intended specifically for specialist items like very rare mounts etc. where there is server-wide demand. The rest of the oridinary economy functions just fine with a faction split. The faction-split is a lore-based. Remember the two factions are in a state of cold war. If you'll recall the real cold war economic co-operation and cross-iron-curtain trade was restricted and only occured in certain places. The existing system therefore accurately reflects the state of the galaxy in the story of the game.